The team rushes to a high school where the son (Michael Welch) of a military officer is holding a classroom of students hostage, threatening to detonate the bomb strapped to his chest. Gibbs (Mark Harmon) seizes an opportunity to enter the room and becomes a hostage, and Tony (Michael Weatherly) takes command in his absence.

In the sixth-season opener, the team investigates the murder of a Navy petty officer, and Gibbs (Mark Harmon) discovers a link between the case and Vance's (Rocky Carroll) decision to break up the team.